Let me tell you guys this

[Hoop Fan]

I am supporting Doherty, so leave your venom at the door. But realize something. Nobody knows how long Doherty will be here. Might be 5 years, might be 1 year (he has a pattern of one year stays at Notre Dame and FAU). But the way we handled the tubbs thing will effect SMu well after Doherty is gone. So even if Doh has success recruiting California or Houston for awhile, that is not the end of the story. At some point we are gonna need Dallas. We need Dallas players more than they need us. That is a dynamic that is undeniable. Yet SMU does nothing to help itself. SMU better find a way to do some sucking up or the doors will be closed locally for a long time. I've seen this dynamic before with the University of Illinois in Chicago's Public League. Things dont just quickly fade away just because you close your eyes and hope they will.

[MustangIcon]

We do want DISD players. It would be stupid to not want them. But don't you think that if Doherty was here for a couple years (and had gotten us back to postseason play before he left) that we would all the sudden be attractive to local athletes again? Winning fixes a lot of things. Attendance, fan support, media coverage AND recruiting. Things will come around as our program starts to come around. In 3 years if we are a contender in conference season in and season out, no kid thats a junior in highschool will remember or care about how we handled the firing of our old coach. But I agree, we do want local talent, but we won't die a slow death for the short period of time they are upset with us.

[Rosebud]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Do we need Dallas players? No. Would we like them? Of course. For the sake of argument, say Coach Doberty goes out and gets a couple of stud players, and they team with Bamba Fall and Derrick Roberts and the rest to really surprise some people next year -- not winning C-USA, but showing indications of being a team that's improving. Then Coach Doherty gets a few more good, if not superstar, players, and there's more improvement. Then you're going to have coaches calling him. The rift with DISD will not go away overnight, no matter what happens, but it will go away. Give it time.